Rooms in healthcare facilities are conventionally equipped with nurse call buttons (or other types of switches), enabling the persons in the rooms to request assistance from the nurses or caregivers. Pressing the call button triggers a signal to the caregivers' room and possibly to caregivers' pagers or other mobile devices. Such call systems are useful for responding to ad-hoc needs expressed by the room occupants having the button or the switch in reach. However, they are only partly appropriate in case of emergency, especially in the event of a fall.
There is, therefore, a need for monitoring systems, which allow, inter alia to give the alarm if a fall of the person who is taken care of is detected.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,877,675 discloses a portable, three-way wireless communication system that provides a patient with a direct link to a caregiver, as well as a central facility such as a nurse's station. The system is comprised of a patient unit, a caregiver unit and a central station. The patient unit is designed to be small and portable, and can be worn on the patient's wrist or the like. The unit permits a patient to send a request for assistance directly to an assigned caregiver, and provides for two-way voice communications between the patient and the caregiver. The unit stores information associated with the patient, such as identification, medications, attending physician, and the like. The caregiver unit is also portable, and provides two-way voice communications with patients and other caregivers. The unit displays information about each patient to whom the caregiver is assigned. The central station functions as a backup, in the event that a caregiver is not able to timely respond to a call from a patient. In addition, it stores more detailed information regarding patients, which can be accessed by the caregiver via their individual units.
US 2008/0117060 A1 discloses a system for facilitating independent living of individuals. The system, which is adapted to communicate with one or more caregivers, comprises a worn device fitted with a panic button and an activity sensor, sensors placed in the user's living area and an off-site monitoring center. A first subsystem monitors the activity levels of the individual and determines whether the activity level is indicative of a decline in the individual's health status; a second subsystem can be selectively activated by the individual to alert caregivers that assistance is needed; a third subsystem automatically alerts caregivers that assistance is needed based at least in part on determination of the first subsystem; and a fourth subsystem monitors whether the individual is exhibiting wandering activity.
Floor-mounted monitoring systems, are, as such, well known in various applications.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,152 relates to an intruder detecting device, which is to be installed in an integrated raised flooring system. The intruder detecting device includes a floor panel assembly and a plurality of pedestals for supporting the floor panel assembly on a base floor, a housing, a restoring member, a switch unit and a piston. The restoring member biases an upper housing part away from a lower housing part. The switch unit is mounted on the lower housing part and has a resilient switch contact which can be deactivated by the piston.
EP 2 263 217 discloses an object tracking system, comprising a dense sensor field in the floor. The object tracking system detects sensor activations and links an object to each activation. It further produces event information describing events for immediate or later use. The system detects events according the conditions defined for them, on the basis of sensor observations. The conditions can relate to the essence of the objects, e.g. to the strength of the observations linked to the object, to the size and/or shape of the object, to a temporal change of essence and to movement. The system can be used e.g. for detecting the falling, the getting out of bed, the arrival in a space or the exit from it of a person by tracking an object with the dense sensor field, and for producing event information about the treatment or safety of the person for delivering to the person providing care.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,138,882 discloses an electronic multi-touch floor covering that has numerous sensors arranged in a dense two-dimensional array to identify shapes. The electronic multi-touch floor covering identifies the shape of an object that is in contact with the surface of the electronic multi-touch floor covering. An entity record is then retrieved from a data store, such as a database, with the retrieved entity record corresponding to the identified shape. Actions are then retrieved from a second data store with the actions corresponding to the retrieved entity record. The retrieved actions are then executed by the computer system. For instance, if the system detects that the family dog has entered an area that is “off-limits” for it, a notification to the owner can be dispatched in order to have the dog removed from the off-limits location.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,586 relates to a floor covering integrated with a tactile sensory layer so as to form a tactile sensory surface. The tactile sensory layer has a plurality of sensors arranged in a dense two-dimensional array. A controller is connected to the tactile sensory surface to track a person or object. The tactile sensory surface may be flexible and manufactured in bulk on a roll, so that it is adjustable in both length and width.
US 2006/0171570 discloses a “smartmat” that monitors and identifies people, animals and other objects. Objects are differentiated based on weight, footprint and floor/wall pressure patterns such as footfall patterns of pedestrians and other patterns.